acts of war against America during the 2016 presidential campaign. This was a modern form of warfare, carried out not with bullets and bombs, but via a cyberattack on the foundations of American democracy. According to the Gerasimov Doctrine, a 2013 paper written by General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia’s Armed Forces, “the very ‘rules of war’ have changed. The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness.”18
If Trump did, in fact, collude with the Russians, he likely violated other federal criminal laws in addition to treason. These include, but may not be limited to, the Logan Act, which forbids private persons from negotiating with a foreign power; a federal election law that bans campaigns from knowingly soliciting or accepting anything of value from foreign nationals; and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which prohibits any aiding or abetting of illegal computer hacking.
The Russian attack on the U.S. presidential campaign turned out to be more widespread and nefarious than first believed. After an inexplicable eight-month delay, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security revealed in September 2017 that the Russians sought to hack into the registration rolls of twenty-one states, and in some cases, may have succeeded. They also ran thousands of paid, targeted political ads on Facebook. Investigators are probing whether the targeting insights they acted on came from the Trump campaign. Kushner, who took the lead in developing the campaign’s social media operation, is on the record as having said, “I called somebody who works for one of the technology companies that I work with, and I had them give me a tutorial on how to use Facebook micro-targeting.” Special Counsel Mueller has obtained a warrant for Facebook records, meaning he’s convinced a federal judge that there exists probable cause of criminal violations.19
Beyond denying any collusion with the Russians, Trump also contradicted the findings of the American intelligence community—under both Obama’s and his presidency—with his claim that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 campaign on his behalf. On September 22, 2017, he said, “No, Russia did not help me, that I can tell you, OK?” Any claim to the contrary, he added, “was one great hoax.” This presidential denial carries fateful consequence for the country, in that the Trump administration is doing little or nothing to protect America from future attacks on its democracy by foreign adversaries. Rather than establishing an independent commission to recommend means for safeguarding our democracy, Trump instead set up a “fraud” commission to validate his bogus claim that between three and five million illegal voters denied him a popular vote victory.20
On October 30, 2017, Special Counsel Mueller unsealed indictments of Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, and a guilty plea by former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. Emails from the Papadopoulos plea showed an openness by top campaign officials to collude with the Russians. His testimony establishes that Trump was present at a meeting when Papadopoulos proposed using his Russian connections to set up a Trump-Putin meeting. Papadopoulos further testified that in April 2016, one of his Russian contacts told him, “They [the Russians] have dirt on her;” “the Russians had emails of Clinton;” “they have thousands of emails.” Along with the Goldstone and Sater emails, this is the third time that Russians communicated to Trump associates intending to help Trump win the election.21
OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
Among those who speak of scandal, there exists a popular mantra—“the cover-up is worse than the crime.” Catchy as it may sound, it’s a saying that risks trivializing the significance of possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and America’s Russian adversaries. It also plays into the hands of Trump and his backers, who’ve hinted that, even if collusion did transpire, its occurrence was not a serious matter. For example, referring to the June 9 meeting, Trump Sr. said, “Most people would have taken that meeting … it’s very standard.” If such conduct were ever to become standard, American democracy would suffer a grievous, perhaps even fatal blow.
Nonetheless, and based on publicly available information only, there is now at least as robust an obstruction of justice case against President Trump as there was against President Clinton. The difference is that, this time, it’s on a vastly more consequential matter than a consensual, personal affair. The cover-up began early in Trump’s term, when he delayed firing then–National Security Advisor Michael Flynn for eighteen days after the Acting Attorney General had warned that the Russians likely compromised Flynn. Since vacating his position, Flynn has said that he has “a story to tell,” a story that Trump likely hopes to keep untold.
To derail the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation, Trump’s White House worked with Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who served on Trump’s transition team. In private, Trump reportedly asked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to influence the FBI into backing off the Russia investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey testified under oath that Trump asked him for personal loyalty and to “let go” of the Flynn investigation. Trump then fired Comey, only admitting at a later point that he’d had “Russia on his mind” in doing so. He has since engaged in a campaign to discredit Comey, even breaching the separation between the White House and Justice Department by having his press secretary recommend that federal prosecutors consider indicting Comey—a potential witness against Trump—for using an FBI computer to type personal memos about these exchanges with the president. And, as already touched upon, Trump drafted or participated in drafting the misleading response to the June 9 meeting.22
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Trump has not merely failed to divest himself from his domestic and foreign business interests, he has enmeshed himself even further in arguably unconstitutional conflicts of interest. In likely violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, in June 2017 Trump gained preliminary approval from China for nine potentially lucrative Trump trademarks that it had previously rejected. The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., has become a magnet for foreign interests, who rent rooms and hold events on its grounds. Trump has claimed that he will hand over to the U.S. Treasury any hotel profits from these foreign governments, but he failed to indicate how he will calculate revenue above costs.23
In violation of Trump’s pledge to launch no new foreign ventures, his organization has partnered with billionaire Hussain Sajwani to develop the Trump Estates Park Residences in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Ongoing projects also enmesh Trump in potentially serious conflicts of interest. In Azerbaijan, one of the world’s most corrupt countries, Trump has entered into a development deal with Anar Mammadov, the son of the nation’s transportation minister. A Trump residential building and an office tower, funded by unknown investors whose money came through banks in Cyprus and Mauritius, is scheduled for completion during the next five years in a suburb of New Delhi, India. In Indonesia, Trump has launched two projects: a resort near Jakarta, and Trump International Hotel and Tower Bali. Trump’s partner, the billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo, has founded a new political party in his country and expressed an interest in emulating Trump by running for president of his nation. In Scotland, meanwhile, Trump’s company is embroiled in a permit dispute with the environmental agency over the development of a second golf course near Aberdeen. These and other foreign ventures likely violate the constitution, whether through the direct or indirect involvement of foreign officials and their patronage of Trump properties, or through their granting of discretionary permits, tax breaks, complementary infrastructure development, regulatory easements, and other concessions.24
A lawsuit, filed by the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland in June 2017, has called attention to President Trump’s violations of the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause. Recall, though, that the courts have no power to order impeachment, that authority rests solely with the U.S. House. According to Article 2, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution, known as the Domestic Emoluments Clause, “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services,
